This new NTT DoCoMo service employs F5's BIG-IP 5000 series as the dedicated application traffic management device to provide high-speed data encryption and decryption for SSL transactions. Due to the large amount of processing power required for SSL encryption and decryption, server performance can be severely affected. Using F5's SSL Accelerator this process is removed from servers reducing server overheads and reducing costs. BIG-IP can be configured to check client certificate validity; when BIG-IP identifies the validity of a client certificate, it directs the client to the valid content servers or provides clients who have an invalid certificate to learn how to obtain a valid one.

"We have spent a considerable amount of time validating our SSL client authentication service with NTT DoCoMo's FirstPass service to ensure the best possible solution, and are happy that Japan's largest and leading provider of mobile technology chose F5 to ensure their solution is robust and safe," said Tim Goodwin, vice president of F5 Japan operations. "This validates our Application Traffic Management story, whereby our products are the connection between the network and the application, in this case FirstPass."

F5's BIG-IP is widely used in Japan as the leading provider of Application Traffic Management and SSL acceleration from mobile to Enterprise intranet and Internet systems. SSL is the most commonly used encryption standard for the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and others, encrypting the data to protect personal information, including the secure transmission of credit card numbers.

FirstPass, FOMA and NTT DoCoMo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries. FOMA service is only available to subscribers in Japan.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the industry leader in Application Traffic Management, enabling enterprises and service providers to optimize any mission-critical application or web service, providing secure and predictable delivery of application traffic in an unpredictable environment. Through F5's unique open iControl™ API, third party applications and network devices can take an active role in shaping network traffic, delivering application aware networks that allow customers to direct traffic based on their exact business requirements. Our solutions optimize the availability, security and speed of mission-critical servers and applications, including enterprise applications, web services, mobile IP applications, web publishing, content delivery, e-commerce, caching, firewalls and more. F5's solutions are widely deployed in large enterprises, the top service providers, financial institutions, government agencies, healthcare, and portals throughout the world. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. F5 Networks is located on the web at www.f5.com.

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